2-day Cross-Strait CEO Summit opens in Xiamen

Xiamen Dec. 9 (CNA) Taiwanese and Chinese enterprise leaders met with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials at the 2024 Cross-Strait CEO Summit (CSCS) that kicked off in the Chinese city of Xiamen on Monday.

The two-day summit is being held at the Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center under the theme "Building Cross-Strait Industrial Chains for the New Era, Promoting Cross-Strait Economic Integration and Development."

Addressing the event, Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄), currently chairman of Taiwan's CSCS group and formerly Taiwan's premier from 2008 to 2009, said that all the summit's subgroups had achieved many tangible results over the past year despite drastic changes across the Taiwan Strait and in other parts of the world.

Liu said, however, the noticeable decline in bilateral cross-strait trade and investment in recent years is "worth a high degree of our attention" due to the imposition of tariff barriers, technology transfer controls and economic sanctions between countries.

Facing a changing world, industries on both sides of the Taiwan Strait need to take a niche-based approach and explore cooperation possibilities in a few select fields such as new energy vehicles, smart manufacturing, industrial internet of things and the green economy, Liu said.

Also at the summit's opening, Song Tao (宋濤), director of China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), read a written message from Wang Huning (王滬寧), a member of the seven-member Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

Quoting Wang, Song said the annual Cross-Strait CEO Summit was "a bridge linking the two sides" that boosted and deepened bilateral collaboration and exchanges.

Later on Monday, Liu met Song alongside Taiwanese enterprise leaders such as Cross-Strait CEO Summit Taiwan group's Vice Chairman Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) and Secretary-General Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘), industry leaders Richard Lee (李詩欽) and Paul Hsu (許舒博), and vaccine maker Adimmune Corp. Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢).

Established in 2013, the annual Cross-Strait CEO Summit is currently the highest-level platform in which entrepreneurs from China and Taiwan can engage with each other.

Taiwan and China used to take turns hosting the summit, but since 2022 it has been held in the Chinese cites of Nanjing and Xiamen.